2020-01-11 - Lunch at the Grizzly Den

There's the funereal hush of steady snowfall outside, but the Diner is busy with the lunch rush. Joe doesn't want to take up a booth all by his lonesome at that hour, so he's sitting in that awkward hipshot posture at the counter. Rather than scroll through his phone, he's beguiling solo dining by reading. In this case, it's a worn copy of 'Neuromancer' propped up against the napkin dispenser. His greatcoat is hung on a hook by him, leaving him only in t-shirt and jeans.

Alexander enters, looking like the world's worst dandruff victim - at least for a second, until the heat of the diner hits and that snow begins to melt into cold water that drips down his spine and makes him shiver convulsively. And then wince, like that hurt. He moves towards the counter, stops when he spots Joseph, then moves to take the seat nearest to where he's at. "Mister...Cavanaugh, wasn't it?" He stares, taking in every detail with a frank sort of rudeness. "Hello."

Joseph looks up from his book, blinking a little owlishly. The glasses he's wearing only heighten the impression. "Oh, hi," he says, amiably. "Yeah. Joe Cavanaugh, that's me," he agrees, as he takes off his glasses, rubs at his eyes with the heel of his other palm, then offers a smile. "I....I'm sorry, your name escapes me. I know we've met, though."

"Alexander Clayton," Alexander says. "We talked about the Asylum, briefly. I ran away." His voice is toneless; it's just facts. He pauses to try and catch a waitress' eye. This fails. So he tries a little harder. Eventually, one does look in his direction, and he orders coffee and an egg sandwich before turning back to Joseph. "Sorry to interrupt your reading. I did want to apologize, though. For the running. That was rude."

"That I do remember, the conversation about the Asylum." No offense in the long face, as the waitress comes by with soup and a grilled cheese sandwich. "No, I kinna jumped in feet first, musta sounded pretty crazy." Then he holds out a long hand, setting the book aside. "No need to apologize. Pleased to meetcha."

Alexander shakes his head. "It didn't sound crazy. I just didn't know exactly what to say. Sometimes I don't," he says, dryly. He stares at the hand that's offered, but makes no move to take it. Although he does add, apologetically, "I don't really touch people. But it's nice to meet you." He stops when she serves the soup and sandwich, then waits for the coffee to be brought over before he begins, "How are you settling in, here? Anything try to kill you yet?" He's not joking.

A blink, and then Joe lets his hand fall. Not making a thing of it. "I understand," he says, still mildly. He's got coffee as well - adding sugar and cream in ridiculous amounts. "Well, not directly. Ran into an interesting Dream - a child's Dream of Godzilla. No harm done, but truth be told, I was so boggled, I coulda got stepped on," he says, tone musing. Not in the least shy of the long seam of scarring on each arm. Utterly unselfconscious.

"Don't get stepped on. They may seem like fantasies, but if you get squashed over there, you stay squashed." Alexander smiles, just a little. "That said, some of them are more strange than horrific. Got attacked by the Harlem Globetrotters, once." He takes a sip of his coffee. "Are you planning to stay? In Gray Harbor, I mean. You probably shouldn't. Things tend to be weird, here."

The sailor's expression goes a little dry, at that. Not annoyed, not even nettled, just....a bit sardonic. "Yeah, I figured. And yes, I am. Hey, don't worry. I got the quota of warnings already," he says, lifting long hands. "The weird is what I'm here about." No playing coy, not in the least.

The door blows open on a rough howl of wind as a hoodied figure rushes through the door, chased by wind and snow. Turning, she exerts effort to get the door shut again before scuffing gloved hands over head and shoulders to rid herself of the snow that's built up. Kass glances around, blinking when she notices the pair sitting inside already. Lifting a hand in an awkward wave as she peels off the goves and shoves them into the front pocket of her hoodie before making her way towards the counter, looking for a server to request, "Coffee. Black."

Alexander's head bobs, once, like he expected that response, but felt obligated to offer the warning. He stares down into his coffee, frowning. "People who stand out often end up staying, even when they shouldn't. It's hard to explain why. Even the smart ones." He goes silent when the door opens, his eyes twitching in that direction with a paranoid sort of curiosity. He tracks the woman's journey to the counter, offering a nod of greeting to her when she gets there. "Hello. I don't know you." He probably doesn't mean to sound accusing, but he does.

The server stares blankly at Kass for a long minute, checks the wall clock, then - with a put-upon sigh - moves slowly to start putting together one black coffee. It takes far longer than it should.

"Whatever this shine thing is, it has a pull. Mine's been leanin' on me for more than eighteen months to get here," Joseph's tone is philosophical. "And here I am. Sense doesn't have much of anything to do with it,"

Then there's Kass, and he waves to her, motioning for her to take the stool on his other side. "Kass, let me present Alexander Clayton. Mr. Clayton, this is Kass Hughes." Who is vastly too young to be keeping any kind of company with a man his age, but that it might look a bit off doesn't seem to have occurred to him.

"Yes you do." Kass responds to Alexander flatly, staring at him for a long moment before looking back to Joe and giving a nod. "I know who he is. We've met before." She takes the offered stool and hunches forward over the counter, rubbing her hands together and blowing into them.

"Oh." Alexander stares at her for a while longer, then shakes his head. "I'm sorry. I forgot. Nice to meet you again, Miss Hughes." His shoulders hunch a little, and he reaches out to wrap his hands around his coffee. A sidelong look towards Joseph. "What does that feel like? Leaning on you? I've spoken to others who have experienced something similar, but it's usually after they've been here once, and just can't think about leaving. Did you know about this place before you arrived?" The questions are rapid, curious.

A flickering glance between them, and then Joe goes on. "Like a kind of pressure, here." And he taps his chest, just below his heart. "The metaphor I've been using is a compass needle. No, I didn't. I set sail from Savannah a year and a half ago and just kind of......let the wind take me. Down around Florida, coasted the Gulf, then down to the Canal and back up."

"Its okay. Kelly house. Thanksgiving dinner. Uhm... Roxy introduced us." Kass offers with a small shrug before turning back to her hands and staring down at them. She doesn't understand the conversation occurring at the moment so doesn't try to join in, just letting them talk while she waits for her coffee.

Alexander blinks a couple of times, then recognition dawns. "Oh. Yes, now I remember. I'm sorry, there were a lot of people there, and I didn't know very many of them. I'm afraid I was a bit overwhelmed." He does offer her a brief smile, though. "It's nice to see you're still alive." He takes a sip of his coffee, and considers Joseph's answer. "Huh. Fascinating. I wish I knew more about the mechanisms of any of this, that it can call from so far. And why?" His head tilts to one side. "Why call at all?"

"Exactly. I want to learn what I can," Joe says, brightly, grinning a little. "We're talking about the shine, the song, whatever you wanna call it. The power." He's not in the least shy about it. Everyone in this town seems to either be in on the secret in some way or another....or just to be oblivious to it.

Shrugging, Kass offers, "Its okay. I'm not that memorable anyways." She glances at him and gives a nod, "That's why I volunteered kid-wrangling duty. Kept me away from the majority of the trouble. And I had to work, so I had to leave early." Flicking a glance towards Joe, she lifts a brow, "What part of it?" Her eyes turn back to Alexander and she stares at him for a long moment before her coffee finally arrives and she's distracted by it.

Joseph's grin makes Alexander's own features soften a bit, a tentative sort of smile turning up the corners of his mouth. "People are trying to learn things. It's not always safe, though," he points out, carefully. "Things push back." His eyes flick back to Kass. "Nothing wrong with kid-wrangling duty. Children are very fun." He meets that stare with a dark one of his own, holding it past when she's looked away. It doesn't seem angry, just like he's trying to peel back her skull and peep into her brain. But he does, eventually, blink, and attend to his own coffee.

"I dunno about that. You do a good job of hiding your light under a bushel, though," Joe says, mildly. "But all of it. It's fascinating to me. There's so much to learn." He does sound genuinely enthusiastic about it, the maniac.

Alexander's comment gets a shrug. "I've never had a safe job my entire life. This'll be somethin' new."

Katy enters the diner for a bit of a break in between work projects, looking to grab some lunch. On the way, she texts Jonathan to have him meet her at the Grizzly Den Diner, deciding she was in the mood for some diner food. She walks into the diner and finds an empty booth for herself and Jonathan, by a window, so that she can see outside. Pulling off her peacoat, she reveals jeans and a pink cashmere sweater. She hangs her coat on the back of her seat, places her laptop bag on the seat next to her and looks at the menu while she waits.

"I do. I've had to re-introduce myself to no less than half a dozen people. People don't remember my presence. I'm an incidental, part of the scenery. Like the maid in a house full of nobles, I'm not seen until someone wants something. Or I do something they don't like." Kass shrugs again, and if she's bothered by that, she hides it very well. Sipping her coffee, she glances towards the door, staring at the new entrant for an almost creepy amount of time. Turning back to her coffee, she glances to Joe and mutters, "Which is why you need to let someone look after you."

The light of enthusiasm in his face takes years off it, though it dims a little, as Kass explains her unobtrusiveness. Joe glances up at the newcomers, but then he's looking back to the red-headed girl next to him. "I don't need someone to look after me," he says, but his tone is warm, rather than annoyed. "I made it to fifty all by myself, after all."

Having just finished something when he got the text, Jonathan made his way to the Grizzly Den. He steps in from the outside, stopping to the side just inside the doors to look around. When he sees where Katy has seated herself, he smiles, making his way over in her direction. "Hey," he offers, before even reaching the booth.

Katy takes it all in from behind her menu, the conversations and the noise. When she is stared at by someone, she takes a moment to settle down at the booth before waving at the person with a friendly smile. "Hi!" she calls out. And when she hears the voice of the man she's waiting for, she can't help but have a big smile on her face. "Hey, Jonathan!" she calls out, waving him over to the booth.

"Everyone should have someone watching their backs, Joe. Didn't they teach you that in the military?" Kass slides a sidelong glance towards her companion, lifting one brow at him before she sips from her coffee. "And you might have made it to fifty, but you didn't do that here. This place is different. People.. disappear. They go away. They die. All ages." When a man enters, she hunkers down a little more, though he receives the same scrutiny that Katy did. Namely, a stare that borders on rude before she looks away again.

Tempted to dismiss it with a wave of his hand.....but then Joe's thinking the better of it. More quietly, he says, "Well, you have a point there. This is all a new world on me. You proposin' to be my guide and shepherdess? Be my wingman?" He devotes himself to his soup and sandwich for a little, eating with neat, quick bites.

Jonathan grins as he makes his way the rest of the way over to the booth. "Anything good on the menu?" he asks, as he reaches the booth. He notices that stare from Kass, pausing for a few moments, before he offers her a polite nod.

Katy feels uneasy about the way Kass stares at Jonathan as he arrives but doesn't say anything about it, instead opting to reply to the inquiry. "I was thinking about getting the tuna melt with fries and a caramel milkshake." Jonathan knew caramel milkshakes were one of her favorite things.

"Yeah. But not in the creepy Lolita way, okay? I don't.. I'm not... I'm looking for friends not.. uhm... that." Kass gets even more awkward for a few moments, refusing to look up from her cup as she struggles her way through the conversation. "I just.. I figured we could help each other out." Then she's busying herself with her coffee again.

Joseph gives her a wry look. "Kass, that I had figured," he says. "I know. Not lookin' for company that way myself." One twisted obsession is quite enough for a lifetime, thanks. "But sure, I'd be grateful for it." Determinedly comfortable, even if that was a faintly awkward passage.

Unable to hold back a grin as he seats himself, Jonathan smiles, "The Queen of the Caramel Milkshake. He pauses for a few moments as he looks to the menu. "Hmmm... Not sure what to pick." He looks over towards the others present again for a few moments, then back to Katy.

Katy feels mildly agitated at the person who had been staring at her and Jonathan previously but says nothing about it. She doesn't pick up on what is happening but the woman's odd interest in her makes her wonder if the stranger's picked up on the potency of her Glimmer somehow. Why else would she have been staring so hard? "How are you feeling today? No headaches?" she asks Jonathan casually while giving Kass a glance.

"I make no assumptions, I suck at reading people and I don't understand people nine and a half times out of ten." Kass lifts a small shrug towards Joseph before finally looking at him. "Thank you." She flickers a brief smile towards him and glances back to her coffee cup. Finishing the coffee, she sets the cup down and glances towards, "I'm gonna head out for now. You need anything.. or you decide to finally take me up on my offer? You've got my number." She leaves some cash on the counter and gives him a nod, then turns to head off.

"I'll see you later," Joe says, amiably. That's a bargain struck, of sorts. He watches the red-headed girl go with a bemused expression. Who exactly has made a deal with the devil. Then a glance at the others, but he's not as astute when it comes to Glimmer detection, it seems.

Jonathan shakes his head a little. "No, no headaches today. So far, it's been a good day. Even more now. How about your day?" He smiles, still looking to the menu a bit thoughtfully.

Katy smiles at Jonathan after giving her order to the waitress. "Already got some work projects lined up. Thought I'd take a lunch break with my favorite guy instead of locking myself in and burying myself in work." She looks thoughtfully at the man who had been interacting with the woman staring at them, wondering what their deal was, before she looked back to her lunch date. "So Winterfest is coming up, it's the first time I've been here for it. We should go see what it's about this year. I know you grew up here as a little kid and it's probably not something you want to do but..." She shrugs.

Jonathan grins as he hears the part of work projects lining up. "That's great," he replies, nodding as he hears that. "And I'm very glad you decided to take the lunch break with me instead of burying yourself in your work." A glance back towards the man, then back to Katy. "I think it'll be interesting to see what's happening there."

When she sees Jonathan looking at the older man, she says, "Not interesting enough to risk anything terrible happening," She adds as a caramel milkshake is put in front of her, "Winterfest seems like fun though." She pushes it forward towards Jonathan after a sip to share it with him. "And what about...the other stuff? You'd tell me if anything weird was happening, right?" Her voice was significantly lower, just loud enough for him to hear.

"Hmmm? What's not interesting enough?" Jonathan asks, before he takes a sip from the milkshake. "Mmmm... I can see why you like these," he offers. He also takes a few moments to place an order for something to eat and drink, before he pauses at the mention about the other stuff. "That thing we spoke about when we were at the boardwalk? Nothing new, aside from the fact that I should find out more about that."

"Oh I was thinking about that old man that was with the weird lady that was staring at us." She shrugs. "My Uncle did not waste time reminding me that I needed to keep my emotions in check and keep my cool so that my emotions didn't trigger anything that would lead to dangerous situations. He seems to think learning more would lead to something bad. But I can't have you be blind to these things, especially you've just discovered this stuff." Her mind is going overdrive a hundred miles a minute.

Jonathan nods a little as he hears that. "I know. And sometimes you need to learn to know when not to use what you've learned, right?" He goes quiet for a few moments, before he smiles, "I'm sure she didn't mean anything by staring like that, though."

"Just a weird feeling in my gut. I could sense something about her." She shrugs. "I mean, we could probably talk to some of my cousins. I know Erin and Enzo have this thing going on too. I really do not like not knowing." She sighs. "It's my first real winter here in Gray Harbor, it feels different. Unsettling. Do you notice that?"

"There's some strangeness, that's true. I'm not entirely sure what it is, but still..." Jonathan goes silent again, before he nods a little. "Think your cousins could help us?" he asks, after a few more moments of pause.

"It's been a while since I've seen any of them. Maybe. I mean, it's kind of hard to relate to some of them. Enzo's a bit of a tough one to reach out to. Erin's the typical party girl as far as I rememeber. I'm sure I could reach out to others." Katy mumbles as an afterthought, "I always feel so awkward trying to relate to the Gray Harbor Addingtons."

Jonathan smiles, nodding as he hears that. "Since you're living here now, I'm sure you will have to do so sooner or later," he says, offering a brief smile. "But I'm sure you'll handle that just fine as well."

"So your place or mine tonight?" Katy asks with a playful grin, changing the subject, taking on a bit more of a flirtatious tone.

"I think my father is having some of his friends over for something tonight, so it's probably best not to go there," Jonathan replies. That's the troublesome part of parents insisting he'd live back home during those troubles. He offers her another grin, before he adds, "Feels a bit weird, still living with them, after all." That part is offered quietly, and with a bit of a sigh.

"I mean...I was going to save it for your birthday next week but..." She produces a small blue box out of her laptop bag tied with a white ribbon and places it in the middle of the table. It's the key to her apartment. "It's ready now so why delay?" She grins while taking a bit out of the sandwich placed in front of her.

Jonathan's gaze goes to that blue box as she places it on the table. "It's..." he begins, before he smiles, "Thank you." It's about this time his own sandwich is placed in front of him, along with a large glass of orange juice, and he smiles, reaching out to take the blue box.

"Well, there goes your present. I guess that means I'm off the hook for next week huh?" she teases playfully as they eat. It's been a week since her return, and their reunion, but they felt comfortable, like no time had passed between them. Katy was happy, because regardless of whatever family drama she had to deal with, she'd come to realize that home is where the heart is, and her heart was always with Jonathan.

Jonathan grins, as he hears that. "It's a perfect gift, thank you. As for being off the hook, you're as much of the hook as you wwant, of course," he offers a bit lightly. Eating in quiet, he watches her in between the bites, with a smile.

"I just want to make up for lost time," Katy says simply, as she continues to eat. "I've made arrangements with security for you to be listed as a permanent guest of mine, which means, all the perks of living with me without having to deal with my family, since of course the apartment's all being paid for. You're free to come and go as you please, you just have to identify yourself."

Jonathan smiles as he hears her speak about making up for lost time. "The lost time should be far less than the time in our future," he replies, with a grin, before he listens intently to what she says about security and being listed as a permanent guest. "Does that mean I should be packing some things to put at your place?" he asks, a bit lightly.

"That's entirely up to you," Katy replies playfully, "You could always just hang out in your underwear." She pauses before adding, "Seriously though, I've had my share of frustrations living at home. You're free to make my place your home too, as much as you want."

With a theatrical gasp, Jonathan offers a grin. "What? Am I just an object that should be kept around wearing only underwear?" It's offered rather lightly as he grins at her. "Thank you. It sounds that we will make it a home both of us," he replies, with a smile.

"Plus the jacuzzi in the master suite is going to be way more enjoyable with someone to share with it." Katy chuckles, the flirtatious tone in her voice turning slightly suggestive.

Jonathan whistles lightly. "A jacuzzi. Quite interesting," he replies, with a grin. "Sounds far more interesting every moment, doesn't it?"

"Truthfully, what it is is too extravagant for just one person, and it's a two bedroom apartment. Was thinking of turning the second room into my home office." Katy takes a sip of her milkshake.

Sipping his own juice, Jonathan nods, with a smile. "It sounds like you have great plans for it," he offers. "And too extravagant can lead to trouble, right?"

Katy raises an eyebrow. "Do you really think that's what would lead to trouble when it comes to me?" She smirks, finishing off her sandwich. "If you wanna come by after lunch, I can show around."

Jonathan is unable to hold back a grin. "Depends on the kind of trouble, I guess?" It's offered rather lightly, before he nods. "That sounds like an excellent idea."

"And feel free to pack a bag if you want," Katy offers with a smile. She pulls out her phone and gives it a glance.

"I'll pack a bag today," Jonathan promises, as he offers her another smile. Taking the moment to check his own phone, quickly.